Ariel Levy, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of "Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture" (Free Press, 2005), gives a free lecture about the subject of her book at 7 p.m. Tuesday (Feb. 21) in the Fillius Events Barn at Hamilton College in Clinton.

Intrigued by an apparent revival of stereotypes of female sexuality in society, Levy set out to interview college women and high school girls raised in a hyper-sexualized popular culture, as well as Second Wave feminists such as Susan Brownmiller and Erica Jong.

On her website, Levy writes: "'Raunchy' and 'liberated' are not synonyms. It is worth asking ourselves if this bawdy world of boobs and gams we have resurrected reflects how far we've come, or how far we have left to go."

In addition to The New Yorker, Levy has written for The New York Times Book Review, Vogue, Slate and Elle, and has appeared on "The Colbert Report," "Oprah," and NPR's "Fresh Air.
Laura T. Ryan lives in Syracuse and can be reached by email at lauratryan@gmail.com.